Governor candidate Berwick seeks big changes to old problems

Wednesday

Jul 16, 2014 at 12:01 AMJul 18, 2014 at 7:29 AM

By Scott O'ConnellDaily News Staff

FRAMINGHAM - Ending poverty, reforming education and health care, and fighting casinos won't be easy."But that's the whole point, to me," said gubernatorial candidate Don Berwick, who intends to do all three. "A leader that really cares is going to challenge us."The Democrat, a former health care executive and administrator of the federal agency that oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs, also doesn't believe in mincing words about where he stands on those and other issues, he said in a sit-down with Daily News editorial staff Tuesday morning."I don't shy away from a human rights or social service agenda here," he said.Among the progressive stances Berwick is taking in his campaign are creating a single-payer health care system in Massachusetts, providing more rights and protections for undocumented immigrants, and reducing substance abuse and suicides in the state by half within five years of his election.Beyond those specific issues, Berwick is also aiming to tackle more broad socioeconomic challenges, such as income inequality and management of the public education and health care systems. Guiding all of his positions on the issues, he said, is a "moral compass" that he believes is largely missing in modern politics."If I get elected, it's not going to be on a series of promises (I've made)," said Berwick, a pediatrician. "It's going to be on a series of principles."Despite his work in the federal health care system, Berwick also positions himself as the outsider in Massachusetts against his two opponents for the Democratic nomination Sept. 9, Attorney General Martha Coakley and state Treasurer Steve Grossman."I'm not part of that system," he said.Already wearing a path across the state - his campaign schedule on Tuesday included stops in Holyoke, Amherst, Worcester and Northborough before ending back in Boston - Berwick said he is trying to impress on voters that he's not just an idealist, however."For a lot of this agenda, it's not about increasing costs, it's about reducing costs," he said, explaining many socially progressive positions are ultimately aligned with ending the state's reliance on systems - the penal system, for instance - that carry a great cost to taxpayers.Berwick believes the state's education and health care systems in particular still depend on an outdated approach to management that he wants to revamp in office. In the schools, for example, Berwick said an infatuation with standardized approaches to testing and instruction has hurt teachers' morale and created the wrong incentives. Hospitals and clinics, meanwhile, despite improving under the state's universal health care system over the past eight years, still operate in a reality where "care is not about health, it's really about keeping machines on and hospitals full," he said.Berwick said his solutions include creating a system of collaborations within education "where everybody is teaching each other and learning all the time," and instituting a single-payer system in health care. Despite the political controversy surrounding the latter concept, Berwick insists "it isn't government-run health care," but rather doing away with a "whole network of stuff that doesn't have anything to do with getting care" that is wasting patients' time and depriving them of real choices.Berwick acknowledges there are risks involved in seeking those kinds of big changes."You might try and fail," he said. "But you'll never succeed if you don't try."Scott O'Connell can be reached at 508-626-4449 or soconnell@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter: @ScottOConnellMW. Also follow political coverage on MassPoliticalNews.com.